Saturday, December 19, 2015

Hi! It's been awhile, hasn't it? Finals are over, I passed all my classes (unless some horrible post-semester grading algorithm rears its head and destroys me), and I have a couple weeks to work on projects.

You'll remember that last time I mentioned that updates here would be happening as I finished work in order to force myself to get stuff done. I can't say that I've necessarily used my time the most effectively since my last post (I'm currently playing about an hour of videogames per day on average, which is too much right now), but I've gotten some things to a state I'm calling "Done!"

Also, I'm working on another semi-secret thing that I hope to share with you next time. It blossomed out of a school assignment. That's odd in itself, as most of you know, since I despise school and have a hard time jumping through hoops and being a student. But that's just about ready to be seen. Keep an eye out for that.

Here's what I've done:

This is kind of my finished version of the guy from last time. Below that, an earlier draft can be seen for further comparison.

This next one is nice because of the speed it happened. I scribbled it out and then sat down and painted it in a couple hours. Most of the time when I try to finish stuff I hit walls. Maybe I just really liked the sketch (which I included below for reference). Kaitlin asked me what the deal was with his hand, and I guess I didn't flesh it out too much. He has a thumb, but the rest of his hand is just for clobbering.

And I've been putting some of my sketchbook stuff together when I've had free time. This is in chronological order, with newest at the bottom.

So there ya go. It was a bitter longer than I would have liked to go between updates, but I think I have some cool stuff here. I've got a couple 3D projects to finish, the aforementioned semi-secret thingy, and a sketch to polish that might be biting off more than I can comfortably chew. I certainly have my work cut out for me as I work towards the next post. See you then!

Friday, November 20, 2015

Hi! It's our first anniversary Sunday, so we'll be gone this weekend. I thought I'd get these things uploaded before we head out this afternoon.

Here's a work in progress guy based on a sketch I did. I was going to show the sketch to you, too, but it's pretty ugly.

A western bandit, a pig man, a guy with an armored arm, a guy with two pistols, and a robot guy about to do some gongfu (also, according to the definition in that link, gongfu is "...any study, learning, or practice that requires patience, energy, and time to complete..." meaning that I, as an artist, am a practitioner of gongfu).

Here we have a crazy guy with a sword, a spaceman, a small guy with a sword, and an evil demon creature. He's upset.

This last one I kept mainly for the hand in the bottom right hand corner. I think it turned out super spiffy!

Okay, on to the news.

When I first started this blog, I posted every day. Then, I realized I didn't have to post everything I did and only started posting the sketches I like. I've kinda stuck to that mindset for a while with various degrees of post frequency.

I had a chat with a friend yesterday and we chatted about art and stuff. During the course of our conversation I realized how much time I was spending preparing sketches to be uploaded. I'd say these took me like 3-4[?] hours to get all scanned, cut out, placed, and selected. Sometimes it takes longer. That's a lot of time to spend on a sketch!

I think that to learn what I need to I need to start pushing pieces further, and so I'll be taking one sketch at a time and working with that, spending the time I'd previously have spent preparing sketches to take it to a finished state. I love updating the blog, but I'd like to have some really professional stuff to show.

So I'll be taking on one thing at a time and really nailing it before moving on to the next one. As I finish things, I'll upload and do a post. Once I have a larger body of (finished) work, I may go back to posting sketches like I've been doing for the last couple years.

So there ya go! I'm off for the weekend. Hopefully I'll be posting again soon! Between the colored work in progress at the top of this post and the weird fish man from the last post, I have a couple things that should be getting finished.

Saturday, November 14, 2015

So, I accidentally removed my "Armoire" tag (which, some of you might remember, was my [misguided] attempt at creating a humerous, non-generic "Armor" tag) completely from my blog. I had meant to replace it with an "Armor" tag, but I failed. So we're starting from square one in that department, until I find the willpower within myself to go back through 551 blog posts and fix tags. So it was like 2 steps forward, 551 steps backward. I blew it. Those of you who search using the tags (i.e. only myself) are surely overwhelmed with grief. Sorry!

I did the initial sketch for this first one last week, and have been fiddling with it since then. I think I'd like to add textures or other cool details or something. Also, his right thumb (OUR LEFT). It's kinda funky. I'll keep tinkering.

I also found my blue pencil:

Lastly, here's the progress on my character. Slowly but surely, I suppose. Still no ears. I've done 2 or 3 different sets of feet but I can't get them to look right. I'm hoping to get the boots locked in this week and get a consistent level of detail across the whole thing. I'll post my concept sketch below. It's really nothing special, I don't know why I'm so interested in bringing this particular scribble to life. Also, the beard is wrong and the belt is too fat and the pecs are not flat enough. Hrrm. Sometimes things don't really make sense in 2D space.

Saturday, October 31, 2015

My stylus was deep within the couch, where we had checked a million times. I finished my second sketchbook this week (Yesterday afternoon on the bus). I started it on the 1st, so to finish on the 30th is one month and spiffy!

Here's a sword:

I think there are a few things I still want to do, like generate maps and sculpt a bit more and paint some more.

These first two were back when I still had a blue pencil. I don't know what happened to it. It's probably floating around in my backpack. I'm really trying to add more personality to all my stuff. The turtle has graffiti on his shell, and it says YOLO. And what's in that parcel? I think it's a PSG-1, personally.

Since I lost my blue pencil, I started using a red one. Disclosure: On the bottom right guy, I used this reference from Creaturebox.

So there ya go. Expect more 3D this week, now that I have a stylus things should move right along? Also, aside from the huge sword in the first image, I'm perturbed by the lack of weapons in this post. We have a cane and perhaps we have a sniper rifle hidden away. More weapons next time.

Saturday, October 24, 2015

I don't even know how this happened, but it has absolutely cramped my style this week.

I've mentioned here that I've been trying to use my phone effectively? I downloaded the Pluralsight app and have been watching a sweet video on generating assets in Zbrush. I've been learning tons.

Thursday evening I finally got some free time and was going to start applying what I learned. But my stylus was gone.

...That's about it. Still unable to find it today after tearing our domicile apart looking for it, I bought a new one which will arrive Tuesday. Because of that, this is all I can show you (and it took me like 3 horrendous hours).

Also, this morning I was helping a lady in my neighborhood move and there was this buff guy there. I was staring at his arms trying to memorize what the muscles did as he moved around, (hoping he didn't get the wrong idea) so I could draw way cooler arms. That is all.

Some dudes:

Some more dudes (and thumbnails/environmental practice [which can be hard to see. Right click and open in a new window for easier viewing]):

Saturday, October 17, 2015

I spent the better part of an hour figuring out how to pose Zbrush tools today. It was covered in part of my grueling 3D summer boot camp I put myself through, but naturally the process is cloudy since I did it a few months back. I was trying to put the new poses on layers and couldn't get them to stick around after recording them. I'll keep working on it. I had him posed in a cool way, but since it didn't stick all you get is this (and it's huge! Sorry, slow internet connections!):

So, my week was fine. I did a couple drawings that didn't make me want to rip out my own gibs. That's all I want to say.

This robot is a little more finished looking than some of my normal posts. I really like his right arm (OUR LEFT!).

Interesting. Here's a more developed scene. I used this image by Moebius as reference.

Here's another one I tried to push a bit more. Don't think I'm not trying over here! I used this picture, seemingly of Moebius creation Arzach, as reference. I really think it was drawn by James Harren, though. He's pretty good too.

This guy is based on my teacher, Pete. Not his face (Pete isn't a goblin). I just used Pete's jacket and shirt as reference. Also, erudite. What a great word!

Some other shmuck. I'm outta here! (I'm quite fond of the nose, lips, and chin of the guy on the left).

Saturday, October 10, 2015

Well... This was a doozy of a week. I did some terrible drawings. These ones were from just after my last blog post and after this I drew a lot of puke. I've been trying to keep up on homework but I'm not really interested. People are saying that I need to "Make assignments my own" but the classes I'm in are not conducive towards that. I woke up at 6 this morning and while Kaitlin was sleeping in (Saturday is the only day of the week we sleep in. I try to sleep in but my body demands I get up around 6 so I get up and get to work) I did some art and started a couple things. Once I get them a bit further along I'll show them to you. But about the title for this post. We randomly ended up with some time where we weren't doing anything this afternoon. I should I worked more on projects, but I played videogames for a while instead. It was only a couple hours but I felt guilty afterwards. That's the sort of thing that gets in the way of getting better at art, right? UGH! What was I thinking? Hopefully it doesn't happen again. I did some work on the 3D character this week, but it wasn't substantial enough to show you. I did work on this guy some more:

Still got a long way to go, I really need to get the blacks out of the shadows. Next, I've got some sketchbook stuff. There's like a pig alien guy standing on the hill. He's going back to his spaceship after an uneventful trip.

I was walking to work from the bus stop this week. I saw 3 different varieties of mushroom, so I snapped some pics with my phone. I drew a weird mushroom man. And a robot named Frank, but it's pronounced "Frahnk."

A dragon and a will-o'-the-wisp.

Then some doods. The text for the grouchy guy all balled up (which I seem to have removed at some point) said "Clothed Cannonball!!" The space marine at bottom middle is a victory because I attempted some perspective on his firearm. I should have used reference. If I ever want to finish it, I'll need to. There are no legs because I couldn't get them to look right. Urgh.

Yeah, that's all I got. I don't play videogames, really, but I think I have to get better and managing my time. I need to be completing work when I'm at home but homework and stuff gets in my way and is too darn distracting. I don't think it's worth it to wait for big 6 hour chunks of time, because those don't happen. I need to cram work into the 15 and 20 minute blocks so at least I'm taking baby steps. I'll figure it out. Have a good week!

Sunday, October 4, 2015

Hey! I finished a sketchbook on Thursday. Since I started it on August 27th, and finished on October 1st, it was just short of a month. But it's alright! I'm haulin' through this new one. Maybe I'll do this current one in a month?

Here are some views snapped out of Zbrush with the monster. I changed his face and added some more detail to his hands and posture. This week I want to go over his outfit (the mesh has some tiny holes in it) and figure out some poses. Oh, I also thought of a way to build him a weapon or two. Hopefully I can throw that stuff together. Y'know? I'm also looking at his feet and they're pretty weak right now, I need to work on those, too.

Here's some sketchbook stuff from the week. This first guy has a silly outfit and goatee.

You can see I tried to add some more details into some of the faces on the next one.

Here are the stragglers for the week. The big guy with long arms was drawn a couple weeks back but I either keep forgetting to upload. Actually, one time I scanned him but I chopped it in half and by the time I noticed I had already packed up the scanner wires. Anyway, here it is.

Saturday, September 26, 2015

My dad used to have a handlebar mustache. He looks like the guy in the bottom right. His arms may or not look like that. As a sidenote, Kaitlin and I were going through some old photos this week and we saw these guys in a parade with bells on their pants. I thought to myself, "What if there was a warrior who was so tough that he wore bells to announce his arrival- he has no fear of anyone, so why hide?" You can kind of see the bells around the character's waist, but I evidently forgot to flesh them out more. (Also, that weird fake Iron Man in the bottom left. That's pretty freakish)

The guy with the long arms? His arms really are FAR TOO LONG. But it's endearing in a freaky way, isn't it? Also, if you can't read what the wizard in the bottom left is saying, he's saying "Magic is a very magical thing. Very nice."

Yeah I'm outta here. BUT FIRST: A cool thing happened this week. The game "Towerclimb" by Davioware finally release! I was overjoyed to find a cd key in my inbox. They successfully completed the game! I purchased a beta key way back in 2012. I played for 43 minutes today, and want to play more, but school is far too busy. So I'm going to leave it up to all of you to go check it out and pick up a copy. If you like brutally difficult procedurally-generated roguelike-esque platformers with permadeath (a la Spelunky, Vagante, or Catacomb Kids [Vagante and Catacomb Kids are still in development, just a heads up]), give it a shot. It's wicked hard, and super intense! I basically need you to play it in my honor since I have way too much going on.

Saturday, September 19, 2015

Hi! I'm really tired. It's 10:25 here. Kaitlin went to a concert with her sister and since I finished (sort of) my homework, I've just been doing some art things. Here's a 3D thing I've just been noodling with. I should have snapped another view, his arms are really impressive. Maybe you'll get to see them later.

The guy on the left with the sword was a personal victory for the week. He just turned out really well, and I love his hands.

Here are those faces we drew last week:

I posted the guy on the left on Instagram this week, but the central character? I pumped a lot of time into him. Unfortunately, there was already a previous scribble on the page (the guy on the right) so I didn't have space to do him justice. Digital magic will allow me to remedy this, so I want to take this sketch to a finished state. We'll see. Sheesh.

Just some guys. The guy on the right's coat and pose was referenced from a TOMORROW KINGS photo I saw. Let me go find it...

...

...

Yeah, that's not gonna happen. Maybe it was on Pinterest? There's no way I'll be able to track down the source image. Sorry.

I like a character's hand in the next one. I circled it so you'd see. It turned out so dern well.

Apparently I didn't really have anything else to say. I'm just glad I got some good drawings in. School is exhausting, I'm tired, and I'm going to bed. Have a great week.